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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4530, 27 September 1875, Page 4

A fresh southerly gale commenced in the South on Saturday evening, and reached here about 3 a.m. yesterday, the change taking place rather suddenly and after a very heavy shower of rain. The wind continued strong throughout the day, and was generally experienced from Wellington to Poverty Bay. Telegrams received late yesterday show that the weather had generally cleared off in the Middle Island, hut strong westerly wind had been experienced at Hokitika and Westport during Saturday night. The following tenders were received at the Public Works office, Wellington, for the Palmerston Flat contract of the Foxton-Mana-watu railway:—Accepted—A. H. Ilhe, Palmerston N., £1991. Declined—Allen and Kihgstreet, Waipukurau, £2036; James O'Mara, Foxton, £2360 ; Joseph Jay, Picton, £2380 ; Henry McNeil, Palmerston N., £2445 ; Alexander Stewart, Palmerston N., £2581.

In moving the s.s. Rangatira yesterday, to make room for the Hawea coming in from the North, an accident occurred to the former vessel. She was being moved to No. 8 berth on the weather side of the wharf, the wind blowing hard at the time, and there being scarcely room to get past the vessels moored in the fairway. Whilst she was being thus moved the engineer was telegraphed to to put on full speed ahead. Unfortunately, however, instead of this, the engines were reversed, and she went full speed astern into the side of the ship Teviotdale, breaking and bending her steering apparatus. One Campbell, who has moved in good society, and claims connection with the army, either in the position of captain or major, has been arrested on a charge of obtaining money under false pretences, and the alleged particulars of the case are of a rather unusual nature. Some months ago he was a passenger from one coastal port to another in one of the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company's boat 3, and during the trip, or at one of the ports, a box belonging to him was mr'slaid. He immediately raised a great hubbub about his serious loss, alleging the box to have contained his commission, a gold cup, and a variety of other articles of great intrinsic worth, and stated that £IOO would not recoup him. Eventually, the N.Z.S.S. Company agreed to pay him £6O damages, and the money was paid over. The other day, however, the missing box turned.up, but on being opened in the presence of witnesses, was found to contain nothing but a few old clothes. The company thereupon instructed Mr. Travers, their solicitor, to institute criminal proceedings against Campbell, and, as before stated, he has been locked up on a charge of having obtained the money by means of a false pretence. Saturday was a gala day at the Star Boating Club's sheds. The Auckland football players being here on their return trip from the South, were invited by the members of the Star Club to take, a row in the harbor in light boats, the possibility of which performance appearing questionable to some Northerners who have been staying here lately. Some of the visitors ax-rived at the shed at half-past 2 o'clock, and the new double-sculling boat, the whaleboat Titokowaru, and the six-oared gig Empire City, were despatched, all well manned with mixed crews. Later in the afternoon, the " big guns " from Auckland arrived, and the Queen Mab batswing, and the outrigger Stella, were despatched with the following crews:—Messrs. Dunnett, Dacre, Burgess, and O'Halloran for the Mab, and Alessrs. Henderson, Gair, Gray, and Werry for the Stella. The boats were pulled up to Kaiwarrawarra and back, and the Auckland men were much pleased with the afternoon's amusement, and were agreeably surprised at the fine course for rowing which this harbor affords, and the superior class of boats now in vogue here. Upon the return, the various crews adjourned to the Pier Hotel, to drink the health of the Auckland men, and another friendly interprovincial day terminated in the most pleasant manner, the officers and members of the club doing all they could to make the footballers heartily welcome. In the Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday, Mary Barry applied for a protection order against Richard Barry ; William Overton was charged with larceny ; and H. W. Campbell was charged with obtaining money under false pretences. All three cases were remanded—the first till Monday (this day), and the two latter until Tuesday. There was another sharp shock of earthquake on Saturday, at about half-past six o'clock, followed later in the evening and early on Sunday morning by slight tremors. . The Etheridge correspondent of the Brisbane Courier Bays that a case was brought before the Police Magistrate 3 at Normanton, which, if it did not create any particular amount of excitement, caused considerable amusement in court. The case was this :—Charles Murphy, the licensee of the Royal Hotel, purchased a hogshead of rum "as per sample." The hogshead was delivered in due course, but the landlord, after tasting the spirit in bulk, pronounced it to be adulterated, and laid an information for adulteration accordingly. On the case being heard, it was considered necessary that the spirit should be analysed, and to save the time required in communicating with the Government Analytical Chemist, a local gentleman, well up in physic, was called as a witness, when the following colloquy took place. The police sergeant to medico: " What are you ?" "An analytical chemist." "Can you analyse ruin V " I should tink so " (the doctor was a German), "I've been a chemist all my life, and a publican for twelve months." "Do you call that good rum ?" asked the sergeant, pouring out a tumblerful (about a pint and a half) of the disputed Bpirit, about thirty-five overproof, and handing it to the witness. The doctor swallowed the draught without winking, and after a time replied, " That's good rum." Then the Police Magistrate asked of the witness, " What quantity will you require to make an unalyßis, and how long mil you require to make it ?" To which the analyst replied—again after mature consideration—" Your Worship, I couldn't analyse less than five gallons, and it would take me three weeks to do it ?" The Police Magistrate dispensed with the analysis under the circumstances.

Commenting upon the recent robberies by bank clerks in Melbourne, the Age says :- " The Anglo-Saxon laws made all the inhabitants of a village answerable for the crimes committed by any individual resident there, and the same principle might be adopted in cases similar to that under consideration, by making all the employes in an establishment answerable for any fraud or embezzlement committed by one of themselves."

A very pleasing instance of honesty has been brought to the notice of the HuwMs Bay Herald on the part of a native—an old man, and we understand not a rich one—who having found a sum of money in notes and gold somewhere up the country, instead, of "sticking to it," as many a Maori—and pakeha too, for that matter—would have done, sent word to the Wanaiwja office to advertise it. It was too late to do this until next week, but information was given to the Inspector of Police of the occurrence.

An opposition prophet to Te Whiti, says the Taranaki Budget, has set lip down the coast. The name of the prophet is Amutu. A new meeting-house has been erected, which is reported as being capable of holding about 300 persons. A large amount of native talent has been brought to bear on the structure in carved work, both inside and outside. The outside has been painted. The building has been two years in hand, and was opened on Thursday with great ceremony, about 400 natives being present. Marryatt's code of signals were hoisted on a flagstaff, at which some of the chiefs took umbrage. The prophet ruled, and the flags were kept up All who entered the building were required to take hats off, and no smoking allowed. These natives will not associate with Te Whiti's followers.

With reference to the sugar industry in Queensland, the Maitland Mercury refers to the Government return, and says that during 'the. past year (ending 31st March, 1875) 12,108 tons of sugar were produced in Queensland ; of this amount 5480 tons, or very nearly half the total yield, came from Mackay. Maryborough returned 2826 tons, the southern districts 3344 tons, and Caidwell 485, during the same period. The return of sugar during the previous year was 7957 tons ; according to the report, the increase will be very slight during the present year, owing to the great injury done by the rust to the crops in the Maryborough and southern districts. At Mackay the increase in the return of sugar will not be so great during the present season as it was during the previous one, owing partly to the fact that there have been no new mills erected this year, and partly that the rust, although not so harmful as was at first feared, will undoubtedly have some effect on the total yield. The crop for this district will not exceed, if it quite reaches, 6500 tons, and this will probably be equal to half the total production of the colony, about 13,000 tons. The consumption of sugar in the colony amounts to some 8000 tons ; there will thus remain about 5000 tons available for export—a quantity hardly sufficient to have any appreciable effect on ruling prices in the Melbourne market, to which the greater bulk of the sugar will find it 3 way.

The following domestic slip 'twixt the cup and the lip is vouched for by the Melbourne correspondent of the Glppsland Mercury : "Young ladies with money stand on very dangerous ground in Melbourne. Last week a marriage was to have taken place, and the, guests, about sixty in munber, were invited to the feast. Some not only accepted the invitation, but sent wedding presents, when, much to their surprise, on the morning of the day they received notes informing them that uncontrolable circumstances had rendered it necessary to postpone the party. It turned out that the would-be bridegroom, who represented himself as the nephew of a ' great gun,' and in a position, or rather profession, worth £IOOO a-year, &c., met the young lady's guardians on the previous evening, and discovered that the cash would be finally settled on the lady. Upon that the gentleman made'himself scarce, and has not since been seen, but it has been discovered that the £IOOO a-year income was a myth." The trial of the American tyre-setter in 4 Melbourne, exhibited by Duncan and JYaser, makers, of Adelaide, excites, says the Telegraph, great interest in the minds of coachmakers, machinists, and others. By the ordinary process of tyring wheels the tyre is first welded a little smaller than the wheel; it is then expanded by heat, put on the wheel, and cooled out with water, which shrinks it to its original size, leaving it tight on the wheel. By this process and machine the tyre is welded so much larger than the wheel that it is easily put on cold, then the wheel with the tyre on it is put into the machine (which consists of an elastic band, a screw, and a powerful lever), and compressed until the tyre is sufficiently tight. It has been tried in the presence of coaehmakers and others during this week, shrinking both steel and iron tyres with the most satisfactory results. This sort of machine will tighten the lightest buggy or the heaviest dray wheel. Messrs. Duncan and Fraser have used it in Adelaide" nearly twelve months, and are so satisfied with it that they have purchased the patent right for all the Australian colonies. Mr. Crutch, of Latrobestreet, ordered one as soon as he saw it in operation. The advantages claimed are that it saves in new wheels 40 per cent, of the labor, and in old wheels about 90 per cent. The wood is neither charred by heat nor swollen by saturating it with cold water in the cooling do vvn.

A contributor to the Brisbane Td<>graph tells the following excellent story :—" We once had a bullock driver who had lived in Caffraria as well as here, and was an " old hand "in all senses of the word. It was a fine sight to see Bob's Herculean form stripped to the buff, taking his team over a flooded ravine, chest deep in water, from the Snowy Mountains. We once found a case of brandy on the dray had been tampered with. We taxed Bob with the theft. Bob was indignant, not at being thought a thief, but at being suspected by us of so very 'unworkmanlike a job.' He took the empty bottle in one hand, slapped it with the other, and saidj ' Sir, d'ye see that 'ere bottle ; 'taint got no cork in it, and 'taint no ways broken neither ; now, when I shakes a bottle and drinks the contents, I-puts back the cork in tight and I knocks a little hole in the shoulder of the bottle and I puts it back in the case, and then when you find it you says, ' TJllow! why the jolting of the dray has broke this 'ex - e bottle, dear, dear ! what a pity ! Whereas, look at that bottle, sir (.says Bob) the cork never took itself out, and no workman ever did that job ; one of your (adjective) newchum shepherds (and here Bob spat with unmitigated digust) must ha' done fiat business, and I wonder a gent like you can't see as much yerself.' We were dumbfoundered. We admitted the force of Bob's reasoning. Egad !he was the most honest, candid, polished, roaring old South African and Australian thief we ever came across—a model bullock driver indeed !"

During our tour collecting information for compiling the Exhibition number of this journal (Border Post) we made the acquaintance of the oldest inhabitant of the federal city, if not in the Australian colonies. Michael Millett, who resides in David-street, Albury, is now entering upon the 108th year of his age. He was born in TSallinrobe, county Mayo, Ireland, in 1767, and reached Sydney in IS2B, during the governorship of Sir Ralph Darling. He was therefore fortyseven years in the colony, twenty-five of which he resided in Albury. During his remarkably long life, four sovereigns of the House of Hanover successively occupied the throne of England. • New South Wales was founded when he was twenty-one"years of age, under Governor Phillip; he has lived the days of the vice-royalty of twenty-four other Governors of that colony ; but in the course of nature, it is highly problematical whether he will survive to see the Governorship of Sir Hercules Kobinson brought to a close in New South Wales, as he is in a most enfeebled state. During the past eighteen months he has been confined to his bed, and although in the full enjoyment of his mental faculties, it is with difficulty he can be understood, in consequence of the loss of his teeth. His dwelling is but a miserable wooden hovel, propped to keep it up from tumbling

over his head, and the interior, though clean, is exposed to the wind and weather through its dilapidated condition. The floor is in its primeval state of nature, without any boards, and the whole dwelling is in such a state as to render it unfit for human habitation. He expressed gratitude to the Sisters of Charity, toMr. G. T. Jleming and others for the kindness and attention he has received at their hands. An interesting example of the extent to which artificial appliances can be made to take the place of the natural members of the body, attracted some attention during the hearing of the evidence in the case of Walker v. Walker in the Supreme Court, Brisbane. When the petitioner—who some time ago lost both his arms by an unfortunate acci><sifft with a fieldgun at Ipswich, and was fitted (by Mr. McLennan, we believe) with artificial appliances to take their place—had completed his evidence, it was generally supposed that he would be unable to endorse it ; but, to the astonishment of most persons in the Court (including his Honor Sir James Cockle), he, with very little difficulty, took a pen from an inkstand, adjusted it between his fingers with the assistance of his teeth, and, with great facility, signed each folio of his evidence in a i clear bold hand. We (Queenslander) subse- j quently had an opportunity of inspecting some j of Walker's ordinary (artificial) handwriting, | and were struck with the remarkable clearness, uniformity, and general symmetry of its ! character. We believe that so expert has j he become with the pen that he has lately ; obtained a situation as clerk in an establish- I ment at Ipswich." Life insurances are generally considered forfeited when those who effect them subsequently commit suicide. The custom, which is general among insurance companies, has, however, received a rude shock in the TJnited States by a recent decision of the highest judicial Court of the State of Maryland. A gentleman in that State having insured his life on the ordinary form of policy, by which the insurance is void "if the assured shall die by his own hand or act," hanged himself, and the company refused to pay. This led to legal proceedings, which resulted in the company being held liable. On an appeal the decision was again • adverse to the company. The Court decided s that there are circumstances under which a : man may take his own life which do not come within the limits of the clause in the policy. The policy only prohibits an act that is deliberately intended by a sound mind. If a man looking into the muzzle of a revolver fira it by accident, he dies by his own hand literally, but by an unintentional act, and for such a loss the company must pay ; and, inasmuch as insanity interrupts healthy volition, an insane ; maq cannot be presumed to intend his own death any more than the man does who Mils himself by accident.

The telegram respecting the collision of ironclads "is calculated," a correspondent ; informs the Argus, "to give an incorrect idea ; of the size of the Iron Duke and Vanguard, ' the vessels which came into collision with so ; disastrous a result off Wicklow; 6034 is the | weight of each of them in tons, but their J actual old measurement tonnage is only 3787 ! and 3774 respectively. Both ships were | launched about January, 1871—the Iron | Duke from the dockyard at Pembroke, and i the Vanguard from Messrs. Laird's yard at j Birkenhead. The vessels (our correspondent I says) were employed as district ships for coast- i guard and Royal Navy Reserve duties, and were probably cruising with the Naval Reserve for the autumn drills at the time of the accident. The fact of there being no loss of life speaks volumes for the discipline of the crews. The Iron Duke carried the flag of ViceAdmiral Shadwell, the commander-in-chief of the China fleet from the end of 1871 to the beginning of the present year, and she has only just passed through the hands of the dockyard authorities on her return. The Vanguard has always been on coastguard service, and curiously enough her first employment was as a tender to the Iron Duke, at whose hands she has at length sustained such injuries. It is possible that the sunken vessel may be raised—and for the sake of the memories evoked by the na»e she bears, let us hope she will—but the season is against the prosecution of any work for some months, or until the spring. It is a somewhat singular fact that the two largest ironclads Britain has lost have been called after Nelson's flagships, for the Vanguard carried his flag at the battle of the Nile, while his broad pennant was borne by the Captain in Sir J. Jervis's fleet."

A correspondent again calls the attention of a "Victorian paper to the subject of " Geographical ignorance," and suggests the superior usefulness of "geographical bees" over the orthographical, now so popular in America and Australia. He says :—" A few days ago I sent you a paragraph which demonstrated plainly enough that if well-educated Englishmen are occasionally very foggy with respect- to the geographical divisions and characteristics of the colonies, many " educated Australians," who ought to know better, are in much the same fix. But talk of " Mudgee being close to the Gilbert," as my Ballarat friend hath it ! this is out-Heroded entirely by the information lately given to an intending emigrant, by the Queensland emigration agent at a certain English manufacturing town. The story was communicated to me lately by the woman who interviewed the agent just prior to learing the old country. "So you've a sister and brother-in-law in Adelaide," says the agent, stroking his chin complacently. " Well, that is fortunate. Look here now," said he, calling my attention to a splendid lithographic picture of a magnificent bricLce, on which hundreds of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen were promenading, carriages of various descriptions were being driven, and horses were curvetting and cantering to and fro. "Look hear, now. This is the Brisbane bridge. Here's Brisbane on this side, and here's Adelaide on the other. Now, when I was there," he said, impressively, "we had to pay 6d. apiece to go over to Adelaide ; while now you can cross over to Adelaide for a penny. So you won't take long to go across there and sea your sister," said this accredited emigration agent, "when once you get to Brisbane." (These are the exact words, mind you. His wife, a ladylike woman, had been present up to this time, but now left the room smiling. My informant says she knew what that smile meant afterwards.) " That's the country to bring up children in," he continued ; " as many as you like ; the more the better." When I spoke of taking a couple of feather beds—- " Not a bit of it," he advised; "give them to somebody here. They won't be required in Queensland, and they won't let . them be landed. If you don't like to see them pitched into the river when you get tht-re, give them away." The woman was landed in Brisbane, and found the bridge was not even then finished, and that Adelaide was something like 3000 miles away.